This Strange Bike

I ride a three wheel recumbent bike and have for many years. A few years after my head injury I sold my shiny, blue, Schwinn cruiser as I was sure I would never ride again. It would be vintage-cool now, if I had kept it. But after my kids had learned to ride and we were living in a very small town, I picked up a new bike at Costco. I rode that for a few years but I met the pavement fairly regularly.

I can ride a two wheeler but getting started and then stopping can cause problems because of my nonexistent balance. Even walking-a-bike and I don't get along. I lived in a very small, quaint town in Washington where I rode the 2 wheeler, at the end of the school day, to my daughter's middle school to walk home with her. I did that once.

At the time, I thought there would come a time when my balance improved, with hard work of course. And I was willing to do the work. But after years of effort, I came to the conclusion some of the damage to my brain would remain. I realized that the unhurt parts, willing to take on new jobs, had done all they were capable of. So when I ran over that bike bending the front wheel almost 90 degrees, I was not too upset. My balance remains compromised as the skills required to keep me up-right, unassisted have slowly declined since 1991 when I sustained my TBI.

After my divorce, free to do exactly as I wanted, I marched down to George's Bikes in Boise and bought the 3 wheeler I had been considering for some time. It was not the old adult trike, although it was close. The bent (short for recumbent) was heavy and tippy but I loved it, and I pedalled around Boise for miles upon miles.

The bent came with me to Montana where I continued to ride; to Somers, Kila, and up Going to the Sun in Glacier National Park. And when I interviewed for a cross country coaching job, at the middle school, I simply told them I could store my bent at school and ride while the kids ran.  So that's what I did.

But the bent is not fool-proof and I fell on it as well. The last day of cross country practice, one year, I fell and hurt my shoulder. An MRI several months later showed I had torn my rotator cuff. OK, I thought, I simply need a more stable bent. I wanted a Terratrike so I entered a contest to win one. Entrants had to offer something in trade so I sent them a picture of my cross country team, crowded around me on my old trike. Each team member signed a team shirt so we offered that in trade. I did not win so I bought one online because the closest recumbent bike seller is in Idaho.

It is an orange Terratrike Rambler and I recently added a green water bottle holder.  Because the middle school I coach for feeds into both high schools in town, coaches cannot show any preference. The orange does represent the school I went to but the green is there for the other high school. When I ride it around town, I get comments. Everybody that stops me wishes they had one.

Fires burned all over my State this summer and the smoke was unbearable to ride in. But now the skies are clear and my pal Justin has suggested we ride the Cinco Heroica Route which is 110 miles. We'd break it into two days and the 1/2 way point is Hot Springs so at least we'd have a warm dip to look forward to on day one.

We're still in the discussion phase and may decide to ride to Del's Bar in Somers for lunch instead.